1.
Western India
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Western India consists of the states of Goa, Gujarat, and Maharashtra along with the Union territory of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli of India. The region is highly industrialized, with an urban population. Roughly, Western India is bounded by the Thar Desert in the northwest, the Vindhya Range in the north, a major portion of Western India shares the Deccan Plateau with South India. Before the partition of India, the territories of Sindh. Parts of Gujarat were the site of Indus Valley Civilization, places have been uncovered in Gujarat at Lothal, Surkotada, and around Ghaggar river in Rajasthan. The Western Indian region was ruled by the Rashtrakuta Empire, the Maurya Kingdom, Gurjars, Rajputs, Satavahanas, Western Satraps, Indo Greeks, during the medieval age, the region came under Persian influence and also under Mughal rule. Later, the Maratha Empire which arose in western Maharashtra came to dominate a major portion of the Indian sub-continent, however its defeat by the British in the Anglo-Maratha wars left most of India under colonial rule. The region then experienced great upheavals during the struggle for Indian Independence, gandhis Dandi March took place in Gujarat. The region became part of independent India in 1947, and the present state boundaries were based on linguistic considerations in 1956. The region consists of the arid to semi-arid region of Saurashtra. The region South of that of Cambay and Southern Gujarat makes the northern arid region. The Western Ghats and Konkan lie along the coast of Maharashtra, the Deccan plains of the Vidarbha, Marathwada in central and eastern Maharashtra define the rest of the region. The vegetation varies from tropical rainforests along the Konkan coast to thorny bushes, the rivers in this region are the Narmada, Tapi, Godavari, Zuari, Mandovi, Krishna, Ghaggar, Chambal and many other smaller tributaries of other rivers. The climate varies between tropical wet, tropical wet and dry, and semi arid, the coastal regions experience little seasonal variations although the temperatures range between 20 °C to 38 °C. Mumbai and northern Konkan regions experience cooler winters with temperatures hovering around 12 °C. Interior Maharashtra experiences hot summers with temperatures averaging 40 °C. Pune, a city in the region experiences temperatures around 40-42 °C in summers. Gujarat also has a climate with hot summers and cool winters
2.
Spanish colonization of the Americas
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The Colonial expansion under the crown of Castile was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Catholic faith through indigenous conversions and it is estimated that during the colonial period, a total of 18.6 million Spaniards settled in the Americas and a further 3.5 million immigrated during the post-colonial era. Spains loss of these last territories politically ended the Spanish rule in the Americas, the Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castile, Queen of Castile and her husband King Ferdinand, King of Aragon, pursued a policy of joint rule of their kingdoms and created a single Spanish monarchy. Even though Castile and Aragon were ruled jointly by their respective monarchs, the Catholic Monarchs gave official approval for the plans of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus for a voyage to reach India by sailing West. The funding came from the queen of Castile, so the profits from Spanish expedition flowed to Castile, in the extension of Spanish sovereignty to its overseas territories, authority for expeditions of discovery, conquest, and settlement resided in the monarchy. Columbus made four voyages to the West Indiesas the monarchs granted Columbus the governorship of the new territories and he founded La Navidad on the island later named Hispaniola, in what is present day Haiti on his first voyage. After its destruction by the indigenous Taino people, the town of Isabella was begun in 1493, in 1496 his brother, Bartholomew, founded Santo Domingo. By 1500, despite a death rate, there were between 300 and 1000 Spanish settled in the area. The local Taíno people continued to resist, refusing to plant crops, the first mainland explorations were followed by a phase of inland expeditions and conquest. In 1500 the city of Nueva Cádiz was founded on the island of Cubagua, Venezuela, the Spanish founded San Sebastian de Uraba in 1509 but abandoned it within the year. There is indirect evidence that the first permanent Spanish mainland settlement established in the Americas was Santa María la Antigua del Darién, the Spanish conquest of Mexico is generally understood to be the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire which was the base for later conquests of other regions. Later conquests were protracted campaigns with less spectacular results than conquest of the Aztecs, but not until the Spanish conquest of Peru was the conquest of the Aztecs matched in scope by the victory over the Inca empire in 1532. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire was led by Hernán Cortés, the victory over the Aztecs was relatively quick, from 1519 to 1521, and aided by his Tlaxcala and other allies from indigenous city-states or altepetl. These polities allied against the Aztec empire, to which they paid tribute following conquest or threat of conquest, leaving the political hierarchy. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán was a longer campaign, from 1551 to 1697, against the Maya peoples in the Yucatán Peninsula of present-day Mexico. When Hernán Cortés landed ashore at present day Veracruz and founded the Spanish city there on April 22,1519, Spain colonized and exerted control of Alta California through the Spanish missions in California until the Mexican secularization act of 1833. It was the first step in a campaign that took decades of fighting to subdue the mightiest empire in the Americas. In the following years Spain extended its rule over the Empire of the Inca civilization, in the following years the conquistadors and indigenous allies extended control over Greater Andes Region
3.
Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua
4.
Black Canadians
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Black Canadians is a designation used for people of Black African descent, who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though the population consists of African American immigrants and their descendants. Black Canadians and other Canadians often draw a distinction between those of Afro-Caribbean ancestry and those of other African roots, many Blacks of Caribbean origin in Canada reject the term African Canadian as an elision of the uniquely Caribbean aspects of their heritage, and instead identify as Caribbean Canadian. Black Canadians have contributed to many areas of Canadian culture, Black Canadians form the third-largest visible minority group in Canada, after South Asian and Chinese Canadians. According to the 2006 Census by Statistics Canada,783,795 Canadians identified as black, of the black population, 11% identified as mixed-race of white and black. The five most black-populated provinces in 2006 were Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, the ten most black-populated census metropolitan areas were Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Halifax, and Oshawa. Preston, in the Halifax area, is the community with the highest percentage of blacks, with 69. 4%, according to the 2011 Census, a total of 949,665 Black Canadians were counted, comprising 2. 9% of Canadas population. At times, it has claimed that Black Canadians have been significantly undercounted in census data. One of the controversies in the Black Canadian community revolves around appropriate terminologies. Black Nova Scotians, a distinct cultural group, of whom some can trace their Canadian ancestry back to the 1700s. For example, there is an Office of African Nova Scotian Affairs, the term Afro-Caribbean-Canadian is occasionally used in response to this controversy, although as of 2017, this term is still not widely seen in common usage. The first recorded person to set foot on land now known as Canada was a free man named Mathieu de Costa. Travelling with navigator Samuel de Champlain, de Costa arrived in Nova Scotia some time between 1603 and 1608 as a translator for the French explorer Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts. The first known person to live in what would become Canada was a slave from Madagascar named Olivier Le Jeune. As a group, black people arrived in Canada in several waves, the first of these came as free persons serving in the French Army and Navy, though some were enslaved or indentured servants. At the time of the American Revolution, inhabitants of the United States had to decide where their future lay and those loyal to the British Crown were called United Empire Loyalists and came north. Many White American Loyalists brought their African-American slaves with them, numbering approximately 2,500 individuals, during the war, the British had promised freedom to slaves who left rebel masters and worked for them, this was announced in Virginia through Lord Dunmores Proclamation. Slaves also escaped to British lines in New York City and Charleston and they transported 3,000 to Nova Scotia
5.
Indo-Canadians
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The terms East Indian and South Asian are popularly used to distinguish people of ancestral origin from India in order to avoid confusion with the First Nations of Canada. Statistics Canada uses East Indian to refer to people specifically from post-partition India, First Nations of Canada are also officially referred to as Indians by the Canadian government under the Indian Act. This is partially because historically the Americas were mistaken by Columbus as India and Native Americans were mistaken by Columbus for Indians, therefore, there is no need to distinguish between West and East Indians, because the term Indian only refers to a single ethnic group. Indo-Canadians are significantly more likely than the Canadian average to have a university degree, 54% of South Asians in Canada have household incomes greater than $60,000, compared to the 46% Canadian average. Canadian adults of East Indian origin are less likely than other adults to live alone. In 2001, just 4% of the East Indian community aged 15 and over lived alone, seniors of East Indian origin are especially unlikely to live alone. That year, only 8% of Canadians of East Indian origin aged 65 and over lived alone, in contrast, seniors of East Indian origin are more likely than other seniors to live with members of their extended family. In 2001, 24% of seniors of East Indian origin lived with relatives, such as the family of a son or daughter, while only 5% of all seniors in Canada lived with relatives. According to Statistics Canada, Indo-Canadians are one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, There may have been encounters between South Asians and First Nations peoples in the sixteenth century along the Atlantic coast of present-day Canada. Evidence from further south in the United States suggests that South Asian slaves were among the first settlers at Jamestown, Lascars aboard Portuguese, Spanish and possibly French ships may have also arrived on the coasts of Labrador and Nova Scotia. These encounters involved the arrival of Lascars on ships from Bombay, Calcutta, the Indo-Canadian community started around the beginning of the 20th century. The pioneers were men, mostly Sikhs from the Punjab, many were veterans of the British Army, in 1897 a contingent of Sikh soldiers participated in the parade to celebrate Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee in London, England. Upon retiring from the army, some of men found their pensions to be inadequate. Some of them found their land and estates back home in India were utilized by money lenders. They decided to try their fortunes in the countries they had visited. They joined an Indian diaspora, which included people from Burma through Malaysia, the East Indies, the Philippines and they were able to get work in the police force and some were employed as night-watchmen by British firms. Others started small businesses of their own and these were modest beginnings but they had bigger ideas. The Sikhs, who had seen Canada, recommended the New World to fellow Sikh people who were in a position to venture out and they were guaranteed jobs by agents of big Canadian companies like the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Hudsons Bay Company. They were British subjects, Canada was a part of the British Empire, Queen Victoria had proclaimed in 1858 that throughout the empire the people of India that they would enjoy equal privileges with white people without discrimination of colour, creed or race
6.
British African-Caribbean people
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British African Caribbean people are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily natives or indigenous to Africa. African-Caribbean people are present throughout the United Kingdom with by far the largest concentrations in London, pauls in Bristol, or Handsworth and Aston in Birmingham or Moss Side in Manchester. According to the 2011 census, the largest number of African-Caribbean people are found in Croydon, there is now a view that the term should not be hyphenated and that indeed, the differences between such groups mean the people of African and Caribbean origins should be referred to separately. The Guardian and Observer style guide prescribes the use of African-Caribbean for use in the two newspapers, specifically noting not Afro-Caribbean, New World slavery was originally focused on the extraction of gold and other precious raw materials. Africans were then set to work on the vast cotton, tobacco and sugar plantations in the Americas for the economic benefit of these colonial powers. One impact of the American Revolution was the historical development of African-American and African-Caribbean people. Whereas the American colonies had established slavery by positive laws, slavery did not exist under English common law and was prohibited in England. Slaves cannot breathe in England, if their lungs receive our air and they touch our country, and their shackles fall. Thats noble, and bespeaks a nation proud, spread it then, And let it circulate through every vein. There are records of small communities in the ports of Cardiff, Liverpool, London and these communities were formed by freed slaves following the abolition of slavery. Typical occupations of the migrants were footmen or coachmen. Walter Tull, footballer and soldier, Andrew Watson, footballer, Robert Wedderburn, Spencean revolutionary Nathaniel Wells, landowner and yeomanry officer. The growing Caribbean presence in the British military led to approximately 15,000 migrants arriving in the north-west of England around the time of World War I to work in munitions factories. The Jamaican poet and communist activist, Claude McKay came to England following the First World War and became the first Black British journalist, in February 1941,345 West Indian workers were brought to work in and around Liverpool. They were generally better skilled than the local Black British, there was some tension between them and West Africans who had settled in the area. Since World War II, many African-Caribbean people migrated to North America and Europe, especially to the United States, Canada, the UK, France, and the Netherlands. As a result of the losses during the war, the British government began to mass immigration from the countries of the British Empire. The British Nationality Act 1948 gave British citizenship to all living in Commonwealth countries
7.
History of colonialism
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The historical phenomenon of colonisation is one that stretches around the globe and across time. The Spanish and Portuguese empires were the first global empires because they were the first to stretch across different continents, the phrase the empire on which the sun never sets was first used for the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. During the late 16th and 17th centuries, England, France, the end of the 18th and early 19th century saw the first era of decolonization, when most of the European colonies in the Americas gained their independence from their respective metropoles. In 1999, Portugal gave up the last of Europes colonies in Asia, Macau, to China, European colonization of both Eastern and Western Hemispheres has its roots in Portuguese exploration. There were financial and religious motives behind this exploration, by finding the source of the lucrative spice trade, the Portuguese could reap its profits for themselves. The first foothold outside of Europe was gained with the conquest of Ceuta in 1415, Portuguese successes led to Spanish financing of a mission by Christopher Columbus in 1492 to explore an alternative route to Asia, by sailing west. When Columbus eventually made landfall in the Caribbean Antilles he believed he had reached the coast of India, but had in fact discovered a new continent, the Americas. The two by now global empires, which had set out from opposing directions, had met on the other side of the world. During the 16th century the Portuguese continued to press both eastwards and westwards into the Oceans, the Roman Catholic Church played a large role in Spanish and Portuguese overseas activities. The Dominicans, Jesuits, and Franciscans, notably Francis Xavier in Asia, due to the massive depletion of indigenous labour, plantation owners had to look elsewhere for manpower for these labour-intensive crops. From its very outset, Western colonialism was operated as a joint public-private venture, in May 1498, the Portuguese set foot in Kozhikode in Kerala, making them the first Europeans to sail to India. Rivalry among reigning European powers saw the entry of the Dutch, English, French, Danish, the kingdoms of India were gradually taken over by the Europeans and indirectly controlled by puppet rulers. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I accorded a charter, forming the East India Company to trade with India, the English landed in India in Surat in 1612. By the 19th century, they had assumed direct and indirect control over most of India, during the five decades following 1770, Britain, France, Spain and Portugal lost many of their possessions in the Americas. A standing army was formed by the United Colonies, and independence was declared by the Second Continental Congress on 4 July 1776, the Patriots fought the British in the American Revolutionary War. The tensions caused by this would lead to the outbreak of fighting between Patriot militia and British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the American War of Independence continued until 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed. Britain recognised the sovereignty of the United States over the bounded by the British possessions to the North, Florida to the South. The Haitian Revolution, a revolt led by Toussaint LOuverture in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, established Haïti as a free, black republic
8.
British West Indies
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The British West Indies, sometimes abbreviated to BWI, are now the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, Anguilla, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands and Montserrat. Before the independence of many new nations, they included a number of islands in the region. It was hoped that the Federation would become independent as a nation, but it had limited powers, many practical problems. Consequently, the West Indies Federation was dissolved in 1962, the remainder are British overseas territories. He set up a General Assembly of the Leeward Islands in St. Kitts, Stapletons Federation was active between 1674 and 1685, during his term as governor, and the General Assembly met regularly until 1711. By the 18th century, each island had kept its own Assembly, the islands continued to share one Governor and one Attorney-General. Although unpopular, Stapletons Federation was never really dissolved but simply replaced by other arrangements, between 1816 and 1833, the Leewards were divided into two groups, St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla and Antigua-Barbuda-Montserrat, each with its own Governor. In 1833 all the Leeward Islands were brought together, and Dominica was added, in 1869, Governor Benjamin Pine was assigned to organise a federation of Antigua-Barbuda, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands. St. Kitts and Nevis opposed sharing their government funds with Antigua and Montserrat, Governor Pine told the Colonial Office that the scheme had failed due to local prejudice and self-interest. His only achievement was to give the Leewards a single Governor, all laws and ordinances, however, had to be approved by each island council. In 1871 the British government passed the Leeward Islands Act, by all the islands were under one Governor. The Federal Colony was composed of all islands organised under Governor Pines previous attempt, each island was called Presidency under its own Administrator or Commissioner. Like earlier groupings, this federation was unpopular but it continued until 1956, in 1958 the Federation of the West Indies was organised, of which the Leeward Islands became a part. In 1833 the Windward Islands became a union called the Windward Islands Colony. In 1838, Trinidad and St. Lucia were brought into the Windward Islands Colony, in 1840 Trinidad left the Colony. The Windward Islands Colony was unpopular, Barbados wished to retain its identity and ancient institutions. The individual islands resisted British attempts at closer union, Barbados in particular fought to retain its own Assembly and left the union in 1884. Power for the union was then transferred to Grenada as overseer of the bloc, from 1885 to 1958, the Windward Islands Colony included Grenada and the Grenadines, St. Vincent and St. Lucia during the entire period
9.
History of the West Indian cricket team
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The history of the West Indian cricket team begins in the 1880s when the first combined West Indian team was formed and toured Canada and the United States. In the 1890s, the first representative sides were selected to play visiting English sides, administered by the West Indies Cricket Board, and known colloquially as The Windies, the West Indies cricket team represents a sporting confederation of English-speaking Caribbean countries. The WICB joined the international ruling body, the Imperial Cricket Council, in 1926, and played their first official international match. By the late 1970s, the West Indies had a recognised as unofficial world champions. Their team from the 1970s and 1980s is now regarded as having been one of the best in test crickets history. During these glory years, the Windies were noted for their four-man fast bowling attack, in their early days in the 1930s, the side represented the British colonies of the West Indies Federation plus British Guyana. S. National teams also exist for the islands, which, as they are all separate countries, very much keep their local identities. These national teams take part in the West Indian first-class competition, the Stanford 20/20 and it is also common for other international teams to play the island teams for warm-up games before they take on the combined West Indies team. Lord Hawkes English team, including several English Test players, toured around the time, playing Trinidad, Barbados. Two winters later, in 1901–02, the Hampshire wicketkeeper Richard Bennetts XI went to the West Indies, in 1904–05, Lord Brackleys XI toured the Caribbean – winning both its games against West Indies. The tours to England continued in 1906 when Harold Austin led a West Indian side to England and his side played a number of county teams, and drew their game against an England XI. However, that England XI only included one contemporary Test player – wicketkeeper Dick Lilley – and he had not been on Englands most recent tour, 1925–26 saw another MCC tour of the West Indies. They did not, however, enjoy immediate success – the West Indies lost all three 3-day Tests in that 1928 tour by a way, failing to score 250 runs in any of their six innings in that series. They also failed to dismiss England for under 350 runs in a series dominated by England. The West Indies played 19 Tests in the 1930s in four series against England, the first four of these were played against an England team led by the Honourable Freddie Calthorpe that toured in 1929–30. However, as Harold Gilligan was leading another English team to New Zealand at exactly the same time, the series ended one-all, with the West Indies first ever Test victory being recorded on 26 February 1930. West Indians George Headley scored the most runs in the rubber, the Windies toured Australia in 1930–31. They lost the Test series 4–1, the fifth and final Test showed some promise – batting first, the West Indies spent the first three days earning a 250-run lead with five wickets down in their second innings
10.
OCLC
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The Online Computer Library Center is a US-based nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the worlds information and reducing information costs. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded mainly by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services, the group first met on July 5,1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization. The group hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The goal of network and database was to bring libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the worlds information in order to best serve researchers and scholars. The first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26,1971 and this was the first occurrence of online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data, between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States. As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside of Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with networks, organizations that provided training, support, by 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on OCLC Members Council, in early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract and full-text information to anyone, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from public and private libraries worldwide. org, in October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. The Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988, a browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013, it was replaced by the Classify Service. S. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users and this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. OCLC has produced cards for members since 1971 with its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, e. g. CONTENTdm for managing digital collections, OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications and these publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations, are available through the organizations website. The most recent publications are displayed first, and all archived resources, membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding
11.
Antilles
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See also West Indies, Caribbean The Antilles are an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Lucayan Archipelago, though part of the West Indies, are not included among the Antillean islands. Geographically, the Antillean islands are considered a subregion of North America. In terms of geology, the Greater Antilles are made up of rock, as distinct from the Lesser Antilles. The Antilles were called multiple names before their current name became the norm, early Spanish visitors called them the Windward Islands. They were also called the Forward Islands by 18th-century British, thereafter, the term Antilles was commonly assigned to the formation, and Sea of the Antilles became a common alternative name for the Caribbean Sea in various European languages. The Antilles were described in 1778 by Thomas Kitchin as once being called the Caribbee Isles in homage to the Carib people who were the islands first inhabitants. S
